Senate passes Lisbon Treaty

Passed in the Czech Senate May 6, the Lisbon Treaty still faces hurdles, and successful ratification is unlikely to resuscitate the now moribund Czech EU presidency, say experts.

"There are political decisions to be made, and they can't be made by bureaucrats," Piotr Maciej Kaczynski with the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies said of the caretaker government slated to take power May 8. "The image is that the presidency is over."

Fifty-four of the 79 Senators present voted in favor of Lisbon ratification. At least six members of the Civic Democrats (ODS) needed to vote in favor of the Treaty for it to pass, 12 did so. The lower-house Chamber of Deputies passed the treaty in February. In theory, after passing both houses, the treaty would be rubber-stamped by President Vacláv Klaus.

However, a Klaus-engineered return to the Constitutional Court seems to be a final roadblock. Klaus says he will hold off on signing the Treaty until the Constitutional Court makes a ruling and wait for the result of a second Treaty referendum in Ireland in the fall. Irish voters rejected the Treaty of Lisbon in June 2008, but after several compromises are expected to vote again in October. Poland has also passed but not signed the Treaty pending the result of the Irish referendum. 

"I have to voice my disappointment that following the unprecedented political and media pressure on the domestic scene as well as from abroad, some senators have abandoned their views they publicly proclaimed until recently, whereby they also abandoned their political and civic integrity and they voiced agreement with ratification of the Lisbon Treaty," Klaus said in a statement released following the vote.

In contrast, most of the statements from domestic and foreign politicians were celebratory. Both the outgoing prime minster, Mirek Topolánek, and the incoming one, Jan Fischer, voiced support for the result. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the vote "extremely good news."

"I hope the remaining constitutional requirements in both the Czech Republic and other member states will be completed as quickly as possible," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.  

While Lisbon has cleared the Czech Constitutional Court before, the rulings were not on the treaty as a whole but specific statutes, leaving the door open for challenges to other statutes. "It was done that way on purpose," said Vladimíra Dvořáková, a political scientist at the University of Economics in Prague.  

The Senate vote came in the waning hours of Topolánek's deposed government and on the eve of June European Parliament elections. The timing is not coincidental, Dvořáková said.

"There is a message to voters. There is such a break in [the ruling ODS] that Topolánek could use this as proof he achieved one of his goals," she said. Some pro-EU voters may then vote ODS in the European elections.

Meanwhile, an Eastern Partnership Summit kicking off May 7 will not include the heads of all the EU member states. Top leaders from France, Spain and the United Kingdom are not expected to attend. Much speculation, encouraged by Topolánek himself, has pointed to the Lisbon Treaty as cause for the rift. Some give other explanations.

"The main reason they say they are not coming is a fatigue of summits," Kaczynski says.

"There are usually three summits per year. There was a summit in February, a summit in March and there is still the June council."

Major EU decisions are likely to be pushed back until July, when Sweden takes over the rotating presidency.

Among the tasks ahead is finalizing the specifics of the compromise with Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty before the second  referendum. Public opinion polls point to a "yes" vote as the Irish seek shelter from a severe economic downturn.

"Right now, with the economic crisis [the Irish] fear exclusion, so it seems like it would pass," Kaczynski said. "But October is a long way to come."

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com